Hi-Rez Announces SMITE

If you thought that the Hi-Rez Studios team was going to be a one trick pony with Global Agenda, think again. These folks have been BUSY! Not long after announcing they had acquired the Tribes IP and are working on a new game, Hi-Rez has officially lifted the lid on another title: SMITE. SMITE is an online multiplayer arena game (ie DOTA/League of Legends) which features the gods of Greek mythology such as Zeus and Anubis which can be seen below in all their glory. Here is the official press release first:

Hi-Rez Studios, the award winning independent developer of Global Agenda, announced today they are developing SMITE, a free-to-play online battleground between gods. Players choose from a selection of mythical gods, join session-based arena combat, and use custom powers and team tactics against other player-controlled gods and non-player controlled minions.

"As a studio and as gamers, we love competitive multi-player games that reward teamwork and strategy", says Todd Harris, Hi-Rez Studios COO. "With SMITE, we draw inspiration from DoTA-style RTS titles, but leverage the Unreal 3 Engine to introduce original action oriented combat mechanics, great graphics, and a mythology-themed setting. These session-based games depend upon balanced class design, sophisticated stat-tracking, and matchmaking functionality. These are features we understand well from Global Agenda and our studio is excited to progress team-oriented PvP in new and original directions with SMITE. At this point we already have a really fun playable version of SMITE and we look forward to sharing additional details about the project in the coming months"

As promised, here are the fantastic hero cards for Zeus and Anubis that came with the announcement. Sadly, I have the card of an unannounced hero that I can't post yet - but hopefully you will fall into my trap and come back to check it out soon!